This is not the Internet Explorer of five years ago: IE11 is fast, compliant and sports a lean design.

The makers of Chrome and Firefox used to regularly castigate Internet Explorer for not being a "modern" Web browser. Those days are over, with even Google admitting this by retiring its Chrome Frame product. IE 11 made its debut on Windows 8.1, but it's also available for the more widely used Windows 7, which still runs on the vast majority of PCs. Microsoft's latest Web browser is fast, has a lean interface, and is compliant with new standards. It even leads in some areas, such as graphics hardware acceleration and touch input. In fact, it's so much faster, leaner, and more secure than previous versions that former users who left it behind may want to give it another try.

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InstallationInternet Explorer 11 requires Windows 7 with Service Pack 1; navigate to the IE download page to get the new browser. IE11 has low system requirements—a 233MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, a Super VGA graphics adapter, and 70MB of hard disk space—so it should run comfortably on older PCs.

Unlike the other major browsers, an upgrade/install of IE does involve a reboot, since it's akin to a system update. But when you first run IE11, as with Firefox, you can simply start browsing; neither pushes you to sign into an online account the way Chrome does. The one thing you have to do is choose whether to use SmartScreen protection and send Do Not Track messages to sites. This is better handled than in previous IE versions; most people didn't bother running the initial settings wizard, so it would pop up every time the browser started.

InterfaceUpgraders from IE10 or even IE9 will be hard-pressed to notice any changes in the browser's interface. It's actually even lower key than Chrome's, with the narrowest window frame across the top of any browser, since it places the search bar on the same row as the tabs.

Window and Controls. IE 11's interface is as trim as it gets, giving more area to the webpage contents and the least to the browser's own interface features. The combined address and search box sometimes gets too small, but you can drag its edge with the mouse to enlarge it.

I actually prefer Firefox's separate search boxes, since searching and address entry are, to me, two different operations. You can still enable IE's menus and toolbars by right-clicking on the top window border and checking the appropriate box. And you can temporarily enable the menu by hitting F10. Like Chrome, IE11 has just five buttons across the top of the browser window, not counting those inside the address bar.

Tabs. IE's simple, squared-off tabs boast some nifty capabilities. As with other browsers, IE lets you drag a tab's position or even pull it out into a new window. But, unlike other browsers, an IE tab dragged to the side of the screen takes up exactly half the screen's real estate, in standard Windows behavior. A Web video even continues to play as you drag it. Another nice touch in IE is that you can close a slew of open tabs by repeatedly clicking the X in the same spot. Firefox works this way, too, but Chrome doesn't.

New-Tab Page. IE's new-tab page is possibly the most useful of all such pages. Not only does it show tiles for your frequently visited sites (which you can edit or hide), but it also lets you reopen recently closed tabs, reopen the last session, or start InPrivate browsing. Firefox goes part of the way here, showing frequently visited sites. Opera deserves special mention in the new-tab page arena: Its Speed Dial extensions can show live info, such as weather or stock quotes.

Pinned Sites. Instead of trumpeting its own branding, Internet Explorer gives the site you're visiting center stage. This is nowhere better demonstrated than in the pinned-site feature. By simply dragging a webpage's icon down to the Windows taskbar, you create a pinned site. This gives the site equal billing with an application. Pinned sites can include taskbar jump lists for common site destinations or activities if the site developer supplies the necessary XML data.

Pinned sites not only get their own taskbar icons, but their favicon is also used where a browser logo would normally be, in the upper left corner of the window. Even the back and forward buttons take on the color of the site icon. The browser automatically grabs the logo and colors for IE pinned sites for display in the window border. Finally, for pinned sites, the Home button disappears from the menu bar.

The One Box. Internet Explorer's combined address and search box—the One Box—protects privacy better than Firefox and Chrome's corresponding boxes, by letting you turn on an off the autosuggest feature of your search engine. With IE you can also choose among search providers from icons at the bottom of its dropdown suggestions. Doing so with Chrome requires a visit to the Settings page, while Firefox's search box also lets you choose different search providers on the fly. The IE method means you can switch your searching scope to just Wikipedia or just eBay, for example, on the fly.

Legacy Features. IE11 still supports unique features introduced way back in IE8, too, including Accelerators. These let you right-click on a page to do things like search, translate, or email the page. Another legacy feature, Webslices, lets you "subscribe" to specified spots on a Web page. For example, you might use Webslices for the price of an item, headlines in a news site, or a sports team's results.

Extensions. Internet Explorer does have an extension capability, but there's nowhere near as rich an ecosystem for it as there is for Firefox's. You access IE's extension-related controls from the same menu as that for plugins like Adobe Flash and your PDF reader. Unfortunately, those standard Adobe plugins aren't built in as they are in Chrome (and in PDF reading for Firefox). IE does, however, have a nifty ability to tell you if an add-on is excessively slowing down your Web browsing.

The browser includes a good download manager you can pause, an effective popup blocker, and capable Favorites, History, and Bookmark features accessible from the star icon.

A couple of features you don't get: Syncing and multiuser capabilities. Opera, Firefox, and later Chrome have offered syncing of bookmarks, tabs, history, passwords, and settings for a few years. You do get IE11 syncing between Windows 8 and 8.1 PCs and tablets, but not with Windows 7. Chrome and Firefox allow sign-ins for separate multiple users, so each can get their own bookmarks and configuration.

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About the Author

Michael Muchmore is PC Magazine's lead analyst for software and web applications. A native New Yorker, he has at various times headed up PC Magazine's coverage of Web development, enterprise software, and display technologies. Michael cowrote one of the first overviews of web services for a general audience. Before that he worked on PC Magazine's S... See Full Bio

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